BOSTON -- Former Treasurer Tim Cahill testified in his criminal trial Thursday that he was glad in July 2010 when a Massachusetts State Lottery executive suggested the state agency should run ads that tout it as well managed.

At the time, Cahill was also running as an independent candidate for governor, and both his campaign and some of the agencies he oversaw were damaged in his view by ads run by the Republican Governors Association that presented Cahill as a bad steward of the Lottery and the state pension system.

"Even for attack ads, I think these were particularly negative," Cahill said. As Cahill also testified on Thursday, his campaign was beset by so many problems that cropped up in the fall of 2010, that at one point he wished he would be disqualified from the ballot.

Cahill and his former campaign manager Scott Campbell are on trial, charged with conspiring to run Massachusetts State Lottery ads to boost Cahill's chances as an independent candidate for governor. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Cahill lost his bid for the corner office, taking in 8 percent of the vote as Gov. Deval Patrick topped the ticket with about 48 percent and Republican candidate Charlie Baker took in about 41.6 percent.

The defense started presenting its side of the case on Wednesday. Throughout the trial, the defense has attempted to show that the Lottery's approval of a roughly $1.5 million ad campaign in September 2010 was to defend the agency from the RGA ads, which began running in April 2010.

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In the spring of 2010 when the ads first ran, Cahill didn't consider mounting a television and radio ad campaign in response because there was almost nothing left in the Lottery's $2 million ad budget, and Cahill didn't think obtaining more money through a supplemental budget would be very popular during a troubled economic period.

"I didn't sense there was an appetite at the Legislature to give us money to advertise the Lottery," Cahill said. Cahill said that then-Lottery Executive Director Mark Cavanagh was unsatisfied by the Lottery's initial response to the RGA ads, which had been an opinion piece delivered to local newspapers and a press conference in May 2012.

Cahill said Cavanagh wanted an increase in the ad budget and wanted to distribute the opinion piece to stores where Lottery tickets were sold, though the distribution never happened and the Lottery budget stayed at $2 million, down from past years' high of $10 million, according to Cahill's and others' testimony.

After the budget was signed, on a Sunday in mid-July, Cahill visited Revere Beach as a candidate to attend the annual sand castle competition.

There, he met up with Cavanagh, a Lynn resident, who had "cajoled" friends to hold Cahill signs at the event.

Cahill testified that he asked Cavanagh how the Lottery was doing, and Cavanagh told him about his idea of running brand-building ads that presented the Lottery as well run, Cahill testified.

Cahill liked the idea, and liked that it sounded as though Cavanagh was "raring to go" and would be sticking with him, even through the political attacks. Earlier in the spring, Michael Travaglini told Cahill he would leave his job at the state pension fund because he was so upset over the RGA ads and the Lottery's general counsel left to take a job running the New Hampshire state lottery, Cahill testified.

Unlike the other witnesses, who have been kept out of the courtroom until it is their turn to testify, Cahill has sat in on all the proceedings, watching the testimony and taking notes, seated at the opposite end of a long table from his co-defendant.

Wearing a charcoal suit and yellow striped tie, Cahill spoke, often at length, under questioning from his attorney Jeffrey Denner, without any interruption by Judge Christine Roach - who has frequently reminded other witnesses to confine their answers to the question asked.

Later in July 2010, Cahill was on his way to a Massachusetts School Building Authority event when Cahill's newly hired campaign media consultant, Dane Strother, "invited himself" into Cahill's Jeep and launched into a rambling "stream of consciousness" that touched on his ideas, including that the Lottery should run ads, Cahill testified.

"I don't recall saying a whole lot to him. I certainly recall him saying a whole lot to me, but that was Dane's, that's kinda what Dane was like. He liked to talk. He had a lot of ideas," said Cahill, who said he was "listening with one ear" as he drove.

The following day, after a meeting with pension fund officials, Cahill had lunch with Mike Sheehan, the CEO of the Lottery's then-ad firm Hill Holliday and someone who informally advised Cahill on ad strategy, Cahill testified. Over lunch, Cahill shared with Sheehan what he had learned from campaign focus groups, about how people responded to his role at the Lottery.

"As the treasurer... It's not always easy to get an honest answer, whether or not your ideas are good, because people will want to nod their head and say, 'Yeah.' I mean they laugh at all your jokes even if they're not funny," Cahill said, explaining that Sheehan would give him honest feedback. Other witnesses have testified that by shifting to the more expensive brand-boosting strategy, the Lottery upped its fee to Hill Holliday by $150,000.

Cahill saw Cavanagh again after an early August event at the State House where Cahill advised the Lottery's executive director and then-Chief of Staff Al Grazioso to "finish strong" and leave the Lottery's finances and reputation in good shape for the next treasurer, Cahill testified. Beyond that, Cahill testified, he had nothing to do with actually getting the ads onto the air.

On the stand, Cahill maintained that the reason for the Lottery ads was to defend its reputation from the RGA ads, and boost sales, which he testified were "slow" and down compared to the previous year.

"I think we had taken a hit with our brand, and that was possible, especially given the information that I had gleaned from the focus groups that the campaign did," Cahill said.

That fall, Cahill's campaign experienced a series of setbacks. On Sept. 16, Cahill logged what he considered a successful performance in a gubernatorial debate and held a successful fundraiser. It was "probably the last good day" of the campaign, Cahill said.

The next day, a poll came out showing him with only 5 percent support among the electorate, and in the following weeks a campaign advisor, his campaign manager, and finally his running mate Paul Loscocco defected from the campaign in a public manner.

The poll convinced Cahill that his campaign was hopeless, Cahill testified.

"I just had that feeling that it didn't matter what we did," Cahill said. He also said, "I didn't express that to anyone."

Loscocco's defection and subsequent endorsement of Baker was "the worst day," Cahill said, and he hoped that it would disqualify him from the election.

"Part of me was hoping they would say I couldn't run, just because it would have sort of ended it all, and I wouldn't have had any control over it," Cahill testified. "But the other part of me wanted to stay and fight."

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